{"id":11971,"date":"2011-06-16T11:41:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-16T11:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/amazing-our-local-governance-heartless\/"},"modified":"2018-06-04T17:22:08","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T17:22:08","slug":"amazing-our-local-governance-heartless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/amazing-our-local-governance-heartless\/","title":{"rendered":"AMAZING, OUR LOCAL GOVERNANCE-heartless!! ?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
<\/a><\/div>\n

 <\/strong>Vijay K. Saluja<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Senior Fellow.Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi<\/strong>
\n& <\/strong>Ex Chief Engineer[civil]-NDMC<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

There have been frenetic activities-in the print media, on various TV channels, in our local political circles & Delhi bureaucracy?! The following have been the captions of the stories related to this very sad event, in one of the prominent daily, which I subscribe to\u2014
\n34 killed as 5-storeyed building in E Delhi falls
\nNarrow lanes delay rescue operation
\nThere was no pillar, just wall,it had to collapse
\nHouse collapse toll 67,blame game begins
\nMany more tragedies waiting to happen
\nOwner added floors at will, officials winked-Govt wakes up after outrage.
\nThieves on the prowl at site of tragedy, hospital
\nRescuers go slow to avoid deathsSlums razed,they took shelter in house of death
\nHow builder & corrupt official created A DEATH TRAP?
\nEmbankments cannot save old riverbed land from flooding-Experts
\nPumping out water may not help-IIT prof
\nAt hospital, their hopes run into a wall
\nOnly a fraction of illegal constructions face action.
\nHe sent SMS from debris but could not be rescued
\nShort on staff,MCD failed to survey area.<\/div>\n
\nThe newpaper also printed photographs of some prominent leaders who visited the site , to be with the hapless?!
\nVarious TV channels have since then, telecasting various related events at the site-visits of the CM, LG, other prominent leaders, bureaucrats, rescue operations, -heartrending stories of hapless, unfortunate Delhi \u2013walas, who happened to be POOR-none of their fault & some of them perhaps recently evicted from the slums.
\nThe prime place in this paper,& other papers & TV channels though is  being given to A.Raja & Spectrum story-top front page & with editorials!!<\/div>\n
\nNewspapers published in other countries-Bangkok Times ,The Straits Times from Singapore etc etc have also reported abt the house collapse & abt corruption within the local governance!<\/div>\n
\nThe question which comes to my mind & perhaps everyone`s mind is\/could be- what sort of society we are living in, what sort of local governance we have, what sort of bureaucrats, professionals, political persons, professional societies, police, we have, who wake up only, when there is massive human tragedy & soon thereafter go to sleep after doing mere lip service, to be woken up next by a bigger tragedy & the media & all, then will have more work to keep busy!!<\/div>\n
\nDuring my school days, I  read a phrase `Nero was fiddling, when Rome burnt`
\nWhat phrase we should have now, to describe the current scenario in Delhi nay India?<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION TO THIS APATHY, INSENSITIVITY, INDIFFERENCE & LACK OF EMPATHY to massive repeated human tragedies??<\/div>\n
\nWhat for are all these local bodies who have full fledged  civil engineering departments with unauthorized construction cells? Are their jobs meant to check unauthorized constructions in the city or to collude with the unauthorized construction builders? These buildings do not come up overnight but take months & years to build  after the sanctioned building plans. And building plan can only be sanctioned when mandatory requirements are met by the proposed construction & the requirements are many, as per the building bye-laws?!<\/div>\n
\nAs per the reports, sizable number of the colonies in Delhi are unauthorized.Construction of majority of the buildings  therein seems far below the prescribed specifications!!Interestingly, all the areas\/colonies are under the jurisdiction of some officers of the local body as per the organization charts of the civil engineering\/architect departments of the local body. Then, how all this development comes about over the years, does not require any research or survey.It is just evident authorized constuction in Delhi, is almost no one`s business?!
\nSurprisingly,I think, the same staff has jumped into action now, to evacuate the residents of so many adjoining unfit blocks!!<\/div>\n
\nWhere will those hapless evacuees with their young children ,old parents  some of them already aggrieved, due to loss of their kith & kin go, in this oncoming winter?<\/div>\n
\nWhat is their fault?<\/div>\n
\nWe all need to find out answers & solutions soon for the  benefits of all  affected.
\nOf what use are all the local\/ professional bodies , government & legislature, manned by experts & wise men?<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 Vijay K. Saluja Senior Fellow.Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi & Ex Chief Engineer-NDMC There have been frenetic activities-in the print media, on various TV channels, in our local political circles & Delhi bureaucracy?! The following have been the captions of the stories related to this very sad event, in one of the prominent daily, which I subscribe to\u2014 34 killed as 5-storeyed building in E Delhi falls Narrow lanes delay rescue operation There was no pillar, just wall,it had to collapse House collapse toll 67,blame game begins Many more tragedies waiting to happen Owner added floors at will, officials winked-Govt <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,82,508,1],"tags":[65,1879],"class_list":["post-11971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-inspiration","category-problems-and-issues","category-update","tag-member-article","tag-update","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45874,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11971\/revisions\/45874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}